TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health

Optimus is your personal R2D2 / C3PO, but better It will also transform physical labor in industrial settings

Prepare to be dazzled. This week I’ve been focused on the language development of young children. Earlier in the week we discussed the ways that babies’ brains begin organizing around the native language of their mothers while still in utero - which led a number of you to pose the same question: what if mom (or the baby’s household) is bilingual? All the better! Young children are the world’s most efficient language learners - and easily master the challenge of bilingualism in supportive settings. Watch as our hero (shown here at 27 months) effortlessly translates the English vocabulary provided by his mother into Spanish (the native language of his father). Research suggests that bilingual/multilingual infants and toddlers readily distinguish between the languages to which they are exposed, without any evidence of confusion. They are adept at recognizing the unique rhythms associated with each language - and can even visually discriminate between the unique (and often subtle) facial movements associated with different languages. Contrast this with the challenge of language learning as adults. How many of us took a foreign language in high school or college but cannot even begin to claim this toddler’s level of proficiency? Amazing. This expert language learner was shared to TT by tarynduarte.